Letter — Council should listen to people

Mr. Bill Crawford’s recent letter missed the point of my earlier letter. The point was: if the City Council is to have South Lake Tahoe join the “Cities for Peace,” it should be based on a vote of the people of South Lake Tahoe; not one activist’s petition. This is known as democracy, the voice of the people, representative government, etc. I noted in the same issue of the newspaper that the number of signatures on the petition was 842, out of a population of 23,000. Q.E.D.

Mr. Crawford also referred to comparing Iraq to Nazi Germany’s armed might as a “red herring.”

For the history- challenged: the Nazi’s annexed Austria on March 12, 1938 (against the desires of England and France). Between that date and September 1, 1939 (almost 1 .5 years), the Nazi’s absorbed Czechoslovakia, piece by piece (against the desires of England and France). In these early stages of Nazi aggression, Hitler gambled that France and England would not display backbone — and they didn’t. Germany’s so-called “armed might” was insufficient to withstand an assault by England and France — at that time. France was convinced that the Maginot Line would protect it and England’s Chamberlain was focused on finding “peace with honor” and “peace for our time.” They were both wrong and they had missed their chance to deal with Germany’s “armed might.” By the date of September 1, 1938, when Poland was attacked bringing England and France into the war, the Nazis had indeed developed the “armed might” to which Mr. Crawford refers. The world then paid the price.